There is a voracious predator in our nature garden at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; luckily it is only about an inch long. It is a “bumble bee robber fly” of the genus Mallophora. It is hanging out on the kangaroo paws in the garden on the east side of the building. It picks off wasps and bees, injects them with venom and digestive enzymes, and sucks them dry. As I said, we can all be thankful that it is only an inch long, but it is beautiful and fun to watch!
Yikes! Our honeybees are having a tough enough time of it as it is.
Balance of nature!
VERY glad it’s only an inch long. Great photo!
Thanks Jeff. Easier to photograph than the little phorids “Jim” had to film.
Reblogged this on Mark Solock Blog.
cute monster haha!
yeah, flying murderous teddy bear!
Is it really that we have to become ‘members of the blog’ before we see your photos? The frames are blank and when clicked in hope lead to a page which says we have to be a member of the blog to see them.
I have a few things to fix since moving to my own site- sorry about this!
Thanks for letting me know. I know nothing about flies – which is one of the reasons I enjoy your blog. It’s also a reason I appreciate the pictures so much! I look forward to their reappearing!